Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins' comments to media following the Yellow Jackets' 49-21 loss to No. 14 Central Florida Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
From opening comments:
“Really proud of the way the guys fought. The first quarter, offensively, we drive down, score on the first drive. Second drive, get down to the eight-yard line, third drive get down to the 10-yard line. And of those three, only come up with seven points. You cannot do those things versus a really good football team.”
On where the game was lost:
“Talked to the guys in the locker room afterwards. Proud of the way they competed, proud of the way they battled under adverse circumstances. There were times — we talk about letting go of the rope or holding the rope — there were times in the second quarter, when they went on a run, aided by turnovers, that we let go with the rope. Came back and played a really good third quarter — guys were battling, the defense was playing lights out — and then we get into the fourth quarter — again some turnovers, some unfortunate things happen to us — and I thought we let go of the rope again.”
Learning from mistakes:
“And we’ve got a game in seven days against Syracuse, so we’ve got to make sure we’re learning from this and get ready to play at a high level. There are a lot of things that we built on from last week. And, again, we’ve got to learn from our mistakes from what just happened to us. And come back. Offensively, put up a lot of numbers, put up a lot of yards, but we have to capitalize in the red zone. We cannot turn the ball over.”
On inexperience being a factor in mistakes:
“I mean, obviously, we’re playing a lot of young guys. But there’s no way we’re going to use this as an excuse. Last week, the young guys played at a high level. They did a lot of really good things tonight as well. Just the biggest piece is the ball-security piece.”
On key players being held out
“You just have to be very fluid and adaptable, in these unprecedented circumstances, unprecedented times that we’re in. But at the end of the day, just when things start going bad, somebody’s got to step up and make a play. Somebody’s got to step up and make the things stop continuing to go downhill.”
On if absences played a big factor
“It did, and I don’t really want to talk about that, I really don’t want to dwell about it. It is what it is. We had some guys, a lot of young guys, that had to step up and play.”
On Jahmyr Gibbs' debut with Jordan Mason out
“The guys understand that even though JP (Mason) is a big-time player — we love him — if he can’t go, then some other guys have got to step up in his stead and contribute and make plays for us. But I think Jahmyr did some really good things for us in the return game and out of the backfield and running the football and Jamious ran for some tough yards, as well.”
On UCF wide receiver Marlon Williams (154 yards, two touchdowns):
“Obviously, he’s a really good player. Explosive offense and they moved him around a bunch. And, you know, just some things. We had guys on him, but he’s a big-time player and he made some big-time plays tonight. So just hat’s off to him. We’ve got to get better.”
On red-zone play:
“We just have to learn to overcome bad things that happen to us and prevent the turnovers. When we get into the red zone, we’ve got to capitalize, and when other teams get in the red zone, we’ve got to bow up and get the stops as needed. But that team that’s in that locker room wearing the white and gold, they’ve got a chance to be a really good team. They just got to keep getting better, learn from these mistakes and then improve.”
On officiating:
“There’s things that are out of your control and you can’t dwell on, you can’t worry about them. You just have to put the ball down whatever adverse situations happen, however they happen. You’ve got to react you’ve got to respond in a proper manner.”
On UCF offense:
“No, we’ve played against them before and we know how explosive their offense is. We had some times we were getting tackles for loss, (pass breakups), creating turnovers and we were doing a lot of really good things. But then the second you misfit something, the second you lose a step in coverage, they’re explosive, they’re dynamic, they can make big-time plays and we’ve seen it.”
On response of team:
I know, Jeff Sims was the first one in the building last week, I assume he’s going to be the first one in the building this week, learning from his mistakes, getting better. He’s got the right mindset, he’s got the right attitude, he’s got the right character. And just excited to see everybody rally around each other to clean up the mistakes that we made tonight against the 12th-ranked team in the country and come out and put a good effort in this week in practice, our preparation to get ready to go on the road and play an ACC opponent."
